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First-place winners Angela Lin, Syndey D’Orso, Karina Rodriguez, Marina Murphy.
Two teams at East Ridge Middle School in Ms. Antkies’ science class placed first and second in the eCybermission science fair competition for the state of Connecticut.
Team MASKing Tape — Angela Lin, Marina Murphy, Karina Rodriguez, and Sydney D’Orso — won first place for its project and each member will receive a $1,000 United States savings bond.
Team E-Chickens — Sara Flynn, Taylor Brown, Kirsten Pastore, and Jenna Harford — won second place for its project and each member will receive a $500 United States savings bond.
eCybermission is a national STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) competition for students in grades six to nine. It is sponsored by the Army Educational Outreach Program. The task for the competition was to identify a problem in the community, research it, and use either the scientific method or the engineering design process to come up with a solution for the problem.
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Second-place winners Kirsten Pastore, left, with Taylor Brown, Jenna Harford, Sara Flynn.
MASKing Tape used the engineering design process to tackle the issue of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) from car emissions. Its goal was to design a filter that can be attached to a car exhaust pipe. Team members made their prototype out of stainless steel pipe, a metal clamp, old window screen, and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda or lye). They tested the prototype by attaching it to a closed container with a plant. The plant with the filters attached died faster than the control group with no filter; this supports the idea that the filter was removing carbon dioxide.
The E-Chickens researched ways to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and were inspired by the White Roof Project. The goal of the White Roof Project is to paint roofs in urban areas with solar-reflective white coating so they will not trap as much heat in the summer and will reduce the amount of energy that is used to cool buildings. The E-Chickens came up with the idea of painting roofs with thermo-chromatic paint, which is black in cold weather and turns white at higher temperatures. If the roofs are black in the winter they will absorb more heat, reducing the amount of energy that is used to heat buildings, and then the roofs will turn white in the summer and absorb less heat, thus decreasing the amount of energy that is used to cool buildings in the summer. The team used the scientific method to test its hypothesis.
“I am so proud of everyone,” said Ms. Antkies. “This project was an excellent way for the students to challenge themselves in the STEM field and work together to better the community.
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